Here are the two scenarios I chose to discuss. I will do my best to apply the copyright laws to these situations, as I understand them. I feel the need to place the disclaimer, “I am not a lawyer, I just play one on TV. You should seek the advice of legal council before doing any of these described scenarios”. With that said, here is what I think.

Scenario #1

Mrs. Urdvardy, a music teacher, downloads MP3 files from the Web and uses them to instruct her students in the various kinds of music. She allows students to copy the files and take them home, listen to them and complete a worksheet.

My understanding:

Downloading music from the Web has become a hot topic in many forums with the lawsuits involving Napster. According to guidelines developed and approved by the Music Publishers’ Association of the United States, Inc, the National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc., the Music Teachers National Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the National Association of Schools of Music, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Copyright Law Revision single or multiple copies of excerpts of works may be made. It cannot be more than 10% of the whole work and the number of copies cannot be more then one copy per student. In this case, Mrs. Urdvardy is utilizing the entire song and making copies for her students. This would not be allowable. What she could do is have a single copy available in the media center for students to listen to and complete their assignment. As I read this scenario I thought of my instructor for a Performance Learning Class at McDaniel. She was very careful to keep a list of each song that she played during class. She had paid for the usage according the song and how long it was paid. I suspect there is more to sharing music with students then just downloading, copying and distributing.

Scenario #2

Mr. Hamer is tutoring for the functional writing test out of a copyrighted series of workbooks from Houghtin Mifflin. He has 27 students but only 20 books were purchased for his class. The same material is available at the HM web page. She prints enough pages for her kids each morning for the day’s class.

My Understanding:

According to Copyright Bay, Mr. Hamer is allowed to make a single copy of a chapter of a book. The guidelines are clear that this cannot be done in order to avoid financial burden of purchasing the book. It is meant to allow the teacher to gain immediate access to material for the purpose of instructing that class. It may not be used for multiple years. The guidelines are also clear that making multiple copies comes with a maximum word limit as it pertains to articles. It does allow the teacher to make multiple copies of a chart or diagram in a book, specifically one per student, but does not allow for making multiple copies of a chapter. The idea of fair use is not to avoid paying for resources but rather to allow access for purpose of education. It is not meant to be a long-term plan but rather meets an immediate need of the teacher. Unfortunately, more books need to be purchased or more class time to complete work while students share.